Meadowslea Ram News
Dear Clients and Friends,
Welcome to the Spring 2015 Meadowslea Ram Breeding Update.
At Meadowslea we are committed to providing you the best genetic improvement
possible for your sheep flock. We firmly believe this is the best way for you to
maximise your sheep returns in the current market. Locking in these permanent
genetic gains is a great investment for the future.
With tailing almost completed around the country it is a great time to be considering
your ram requirements and breed choice options for the years ahead.
Our 600 sale Rams have come through a tough season and are looking very well.
Meadowslea Survival Genes prove tops on SIL-ACE
Survival and Easy Care is the cornerstone of our breeding operation and we have now
lambed our stud ewes totally unshepherded on hill country for 23 years. Meadowslea
Romney Sires were ranked 1st and 2nd in NZ Romney’s for Survival on SIL ACE in
2013. As fertility and scanning percentages increase it is survival through to tailing
that counts on the bottom line. This inherent survival is money in the bank for you our
clients whether you farm straight Romneys, Romney crosses or the Kelso’s, they will
all carry the high survival genes we have now locked in.
We continue to offer a balance of Traditional and New Genetics, based around our
90 year old Romney breeding programme proven to perform on hill country. Our
clients report tremendous gains in fertility, survival, growth and yield across all the 7
breeds we offer. It is exciting to see you producing so many more lambs that are
heavier, killable much earlier and all achieved for a lot less work.
Wool has always been an important part of our selection criteria and all our maternal
breeds have their individual wool weights available. With wool once again
contributing more to the income it is an opportune time to look at the choices
available for your 2015/16 breeding programme.
We are pleased to offer you the most exciting range of genetics I have seen
during my lifetime in the breeding industry.
“Romney’s just keep getting better!” Romney is still the mainstay of our operation.
The Romney Ewes also make up the most important base for our cross-breeding
programme. We have bred an easier doing sheep with more muscle, much better
fertility and medium quality wool. After 90 years of breeding we have some of the
best S.I.L. indexes in NZ including top survival figures.
We now have a leasing arrangement with Turanganui Romneys in the Waiarapa
allowing us a pick of two of their best Stud sire rams each year. We use these top
sires later in the same mating season after they have been mated at Turanganui stud.
This year’s sale rams include the first Turanganui progeny and our Romney clients
will love the thickness and depth of hindquarter in this year’s line-up of sale rams.
The use of the Texel in most of our crossbred rams has allowed us to introduce the
MyoMax muscle gene (which is unique to the Texel). This gives a big boost to lamb
weights particularly at weaning and significantly increases yield.
Texel x Romney - is proving to be a very productive & popular breed and we have
been very particular with our choice of Texel sires to maintain structural soundness
and keep fertility at the very highest level. We now have both the first cross and a
stabilised option available. This breed is performing very well on tough hill-country,
right through to heavy flats, with clients loving the big weaning drafts and high
yielding performance of the lambs. Many clients report that using this breed has done
away with the need for a Terminal sire thus giving the added bonus of more ewe
lambs to pick from or sell for breeding. This year’s line-up is very strong once again
and all rams carry the MyoMax gene.
Perendale x Romney (Romdale) has proven over many years to be very productive
on clients’ hill-country properties. We source top Perendale Sires each year from
Adam Thacker’s Stud in Okains Bay Banks Peninsula .Adam regularly Scans over
190% on steep exposed hill country and has the meatiest Perendales we have seen in
NZ. Crossing over our Stud Romney ewes the resulting progeny are bold active sheep
with a quality fleece and have great survival and vigour. This year’s line-up of
Romdale’s is the best yet!
Perendale x Texel x Romney is proving one of our most popular crosses and we
have increased the numbers on offer again this year. Each year we retain the top
Romdale 2th ewes and mate them with our own top scanning Texel x Romney Rams.
This cross works extremely well and adds more growth, and yield with more lambs
off mum. Clients love the results they are achieving.
Kelso Maternal – We are the sole supplier in the South Island of Kelso Maternals
bred using the latest North Island Kelso Genetics. We now lease the first pick of the
elite Kelso Ram Hgts which carry all the latest gene technology plus proven success
in SIL-ACE, the central Progeny test and CT Scanning results. This is our second
crop of sale Rams bred this way and they are a big improvement structurally and offer
a dynamic high performance package. Our Kelso Maternal ewes have always scanned
over 200% and have tailed over 170% totally unshepherded on tussock. Our clients
report fantastic performance especially with hogget mating and their ability to hit the
premium carcase grades. Now with our affiliation with Kelso-North Island expect
even more production gains in the future!
Kelso x Romney - we have developed this breed by crossing top Kelso Sires, over
our unshepherded Romney stud ewes. These Top Kelso North Island Ram Hgts all
carry a double copy of the MyoMax gene so all sale rams carry one copy of the extra
muscle gene for improved yield and carcase weight These are very good sheep with
exceptional hindquarters and strength of bone and quality wool. “By combining the
attributes of the Romney and the Kelso clients benefit from the best of both worlds”.
Kelso Terminal Sire – (previously called “Ranger”). These tough hill-bred sheep
are a mix of a number of different meat breeds incorporating the latest gene
technology. Their lamb survival and hybrid-vigour is tremendous and clients report
big increases in the number and weight of lambs in the weaning draft, as well as
improved carcase yield. Clients are achieving exceptional results over a wide variety
of breeds with many rams now used with great success over Merinos and Halfbreds
Our RAM SALE is THURSDAY NOV 26th and we will again offer the very
highest-performing rams of each breed under the Helmsman silent auction system.
Viewing is from 11am with bidding from 12.30pm till 2pm. Private sales will start in
early December.
Once again we will have our display tent at the Christchurch Show with a sample of
our sheep, and hope to catch up with many of you there. Otherwise we will be in
contact very soon to discuss your ram requirements.
Kind regards and all the best for the season ahead.
David Giddings 03 685 8027 027 229 9760 giddingsfamily@xtra.co.nz